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UC Santa Barbara jumped seven spots in this year’s National Universities Rankings by Washington Monthly magazine. UCSB is ranked number 15 in the 2014 list released today by Washington Monthly magazine in its September/October issue. UCSB was ranked number 22 in 2013.

Among public universities, UCSB is number 11 among National Universities, and number 12 in the Best Bang for the Buck rankings.

While U.S. News & World Report usually awards its highest ratings to private universities, the editors of Washington Monthly prefer to give public universities more credit, and higher rankings. Fifteen of the top 20 universities in the Washington Monthly rankings are taxpayer-funded.

The University of California dominated Washington Monthly’s 2014 list, with UC San Diego taking the top spot, and UC Riverside and UC Berkeley ranking second and third, respectively. UCLA is ranked fifth and UC Davis is ranked number 16.

Fifteen of the 20 highest-rated universities are public, including top-ranked UC San Diego. “For four of our campuses to be ranked in the top five and for UC San Diego to be ranked No. 1 for the fifth consecutive year is a significant achievement,” said UC President Janet Napolitano. “All eight of the UC campuses that were ranked in the top 100 institutions deserve heartfelt congratulations from the entire UC community.”

Among the criteria considered by Washington Monthly are the percentage of students receiving Pell Grants; the difference between predicted vs. actual graduation rates; total research spending; Peace Corps service by graduates; community service participation; faculty awards; and faculty members elected to national academies.

In the Best Bang for the Buck rankings, the magazine’s editors said that the list “rewards schools that do a good job of conferring degrees on middle- and lower-income students while charging them reasonable prices.”